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Photo-Op: Overdue

A photographic review of Vincent D. Feldman's "City Abandoned."

March 7, 2014 5:10 p.m. ET

Libraries should offer us beauty as well as knowledge. The sense of higher purpose to be found in vaulted reading rooms and dense stacks is no less a public good than the information they contain. At the turn of the 20th century, the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie funded nearly 1,700 libraries across the country. These included 25 in Philadelphia, many designed by leading architects. Carnegie was openhanded—when an official requested $30,000 per branch, he countered with $50,000—but he expected Philadelphia to pay for upkeep. His hopes would be disappointed as the city declined after the war, losing a quarter of its...